Jump Up & Lay On Horse's Back, Preparing for First Ride

Part One of 2 part series.

Kel Jeffery developed a method for getting on a horse for the first time where you lay on the horse's back before you actually straddle it. Parelli and Anderson both use this method today. It's a great way to prepare your horse to be ridden for the first time.

Laying on a horse's back is actually much more difficult for a horse to tolerate than being sat on, so if you lay on your horse first, there is a much better chance that you'll be successful sitting on him. When you lay on the horse's back, rub him all over his girth, flank, and rump so that he gets used to you moving about on his back. To maintain your horse's love of learning, help him win - build up the number of strokes you make in those sensitive areas one stroke at a time. If you rush things, you'll knock the try out of him.

After your horse will let you pet the sensitive areas while laying on his back, try staying on his back until he licks and chews. You want to reinforce emotional collection. When he relaxes, jump down and make a big deal out of him. Personally, I click when I see the horse lick and chew, then I give him a treat. Eventually, I stay on his back and treat him from up there. It teaches flexion and helps him learn that he wants me to stay on his back so he can earn treats. I don't want him thinking that my getting off is the desirable thing.

Ultimately, you want to lay on top of the horse with your head beside his wither and your feet hanging off his rump. But before you can get to that stage, it's important that his flank and rump are thoroughly desensitized. Many horse's jump forward when you first bring your legs up to lay parallel to them on their back. Nevertheless, it's important to lie on their back before actually straddling them as it is easier, should something go wrong, to get off when you're laying on a horse than it is when you're straddling a horse. Additionally, the point is not to ride the horse, the point is to prepare the horse to be ridden. When you lay on top of a horse and wriggle all over the place, you have the opportunity to convince the horse that all the things he surely thought would kill him, won't - you can touch him everywhere and never hurt him.

I don't want to ride a horse until the horse is completely convinced I'm not going to kill him. Otherwise, he hasn't completely made up his mind not to kill me.

If you like the video, please leave a comment and a positive rating. It helps the video to show up better in search results. Thanks!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• colt+starting
• natural+horsemanship
• mounting
• young+horse
• first+ride
• pre-ride
• training
• first+time+being+ridden
• colt

[poolsproperty]

we have been doing this with my 3 year old colt .. sat on him 1st time last week after doing this laying for a couple of weeks ...

[welcometopemberley]

@poolsproperty Congrats! It does work. Did you learn about it here or some place else in addition to here?

[BookendsPonies]

To continue- therefore, presenting the scary object is asking them if they want to participate, and head down indicates both relaxation and readiness to participate. Does that make sense?

[welcometopemberley]

For example, one time I wanted to try various saddles on my horse to see which fit best. I wanted to set the saddle on without a girth and let him walk around and see how the saddle moved. If the saddle were a cue for head down, stand still, my horse couldn't communicate to me how well the saddle fit. I did my experiment, found a saddle that I thought fit, road him in it a few times, then one time went to put it on and he moved away, indicating to me that it now hurt his back.

[welcometopemberley]

Q just move to the side and made a face that said, Can we try something else? He uses this same face when he is tired of working on one activity. I don't want my horse to be a machine. I'm interested in the dialogue.

I also don't think getting to do a head down is a reward. You are welcome to explain that further in a private message.

This particular video is a video showing some of the steps I went through before I came up with the idea for the initiator signal. I use a different approach now

[welcometopemberley]

By the way, thank you for adding my beginner riding lesson video to your favorites.

-Kali

[ImOnFIire]

He looks very figety but also looks like he is learning and wants to partiipate lovely horse.

[LayHorse]

HORSE LAY - Horse Betting Losers

horselay.com

[ThePonyPros]

@syncyndy Thank you. That's very kind of you to say :)

[syncyndy]

Very good! You seem very talented and gentle, more green horses needs trainers like you :)

[akanewe]

@poolsproperty That's great, but can I just ask why so long laying on before sitting?Was he difficult, etc? Just my experience, I sit on the colt I'm starting the same morning I'm laying on him. Take all precautions, but you can gradually put your leg further over as you get on the umpteenth time. You can sense more or less if he's ok with it (never any guarantee of course) but it's just a matter of trying carefuly. Let us know if you go for another one how you get on. Good luck!

[akanewe]

Good stuff. We do this in our village normally before even putting on the saddle the first time. Sometimes I do it after he's had it on (depends on how he feels and looks to me). If he looks too prancy or nervous etc I do the usual stuff and get the saddle on first. Then he is normally more calm and I lay on him. We also sit bareback before sitting in the saddle, when starting I think an emergency dismount is quicker and easier bareback than with a saddle. I enjoyed the vid, congrats!

[poolsproperty]

@welcometopemberley not from here, just from another natural technique i saw .. but im trying to put all together to back him ... but this is so much like what i have been doing ..

[ccpunky1]

This is sooo cool.! u know alot about horses! oh and i horse back ride in the summer. i have cantered and jumped and stuff! its really fun! i love ur horse too! hes so cute!